Is it really eight days until I am physically hugging my mother and father’s neck at Memphis international airport gate while jumping up and down in a frenzy of emotional bliss? Not to mention my sweet friends who are driving up to memph town…however I think that’s just strictly for them to have fun in the car…on the way up singing into drum stick!
I new June was going to go by fast. After Joel, Jackie and Jackson left on June 11 I had six days in Accra and then Amy Rambo, Ryan Kennedy, Davis Webb, Chip Jackson and our driver Stephen headed back up north to return June 26!
So now I’m in the process of making a five minute dvd to play at The Orchard when I’m home in Mississippi, while packing and buying some good ole African artifacts for family and friends…I’ve only got seven days! YIKES
Saturday Amy, Ryan and I are going to lead youth group and then Sunday we’re going to prampram orphanage to teach and hang out with kids…so this weekend is busy!!!!
Our trip was WONDERFUL. Only one minor bump…I lost my cell phone with every number for people in Ghana. Stink. But- we got to receive blessings and hopefully be blessings by going around to love on our coworkers! Check out the Jernigan’s blog, Ry’s blog and www.daviswebb.blogspot.com.
Ryan and Davis had brought several goodies for each family…and I have to say Ryan’s mom did an OUTSTANDING job picking out princess dresses for two of the little girls on our team Rachel and Louisa.
Now I’m going to get a little serious with what God’s doing up in my disgustingly selfish heart! Read on if you want to analyze my thoughts and really see how messed up my brain is! You’ve been warned.
Each morning someone led devotion. One thing I love about the ‘trip bubble’ during the ‘trip length of time’ is the amount of intentional Word time when traveling with others who LOVE the Lord.
God has impressed a couple things on my heart that I’ve been chewing on this week. One-being how we are to love others especially fellow Christians. I keep going back to 1 Corinthians 13:4. I know we hear about this verse during weddings a lot, but I totally am trying to figure out the balance of speaking truth in love to our fellow believers and how much we pray and forgive without bringing differences up. Is there an easy answer here??? Please give me a how to do it and I will follow.
Second- Davis read 1 Peter 4:11. “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.” This is where I meditated for a couple of days and Saturday I’m leading a discussion at our local international youth group.
When we do what we do - do we do it for God or for ourselves? The scripture was written by Peter to Jewish Christians persecuted and ridiculed for believing in Jesus. He tells them speak as if you were speaking the words of God…speak to those who make fun of you with love…to those who persecute you. Serve with the strength of the Lord so that they may know God through Jesus. So many times I think about me how I’m feeling about doing ministry, but my gosh if I could just get outside of myself and my feelings there is a world who doesn’t know the love, joy, peace that comes from knowing Jesus.
Why do I do what I do?
Oh how my heart yearns for ME to be ‘great’ at something. I have this unquenchable desire for when people think Margaret they think ________ insert being the best at ‘something.’ Lately, I have felt so beaten up (my mind conjuring up insults against myself) by the fact that I’m not creative enough, or not smart enough or wise biblically enough or … I mean the list could seriously go on and on. Besides the fact that thinking I’m not good at anything is completely being self focused… I have been reflecting on the words I speak when I get so consumed in me. Are these words as if one speaking the very words of God? And if I’m doing “it” for God should I get so sidetracked in what others think?
Agh the growing pains of this journey with our Lord. I know we are refined by trials so I’m trying to walk through and stay committed to what the Lord has shown me he’s called me to, even when I don’t ‘feel’ like I am enough. Is He trying to teach me that it’s ALL about him? I thought I had that one learned...
One week from today I’ll be fellowshipping with family and friends at my mother’s house in Starkville. It's going to be lots of fun...I'm starting to get excited to see everyone....more posting later :)
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6.30.2007
6.12.2007
The Orchard Vision Trip
As I write this the Hawkins are sitting in Germany enduring a four hour layover from 5:45am- 9:45am. It’s not fun, I’ve done that one before. So continue your prayers for their safe journey to America.
The past 13 days have been exciting, challenging, exhausting, stressful but full of joy! Overall I think Jackie, Joel, Jackson and I would agree the first vision trip for The Orchard was wonderful.
I want to first thank everyone who has prayerfully and financially supported the Hawkins coming to Ghana. Their time here I believe was fruitful for their hearts as well as those they started a relationship with. If you ask them about the trip they will probably tell you the first couple of days were very stressful! You face emotional stress. You arrive in a new culture after traveling for over 20 hours and you are exhausted when you get off the plane in the host culture, in this case Ghana. Then you ride in a car where you are bombarded by all your senses as you hear, smell and see everything new for the first time. You ride in a car, not knowing at all where you’re going but trusting that the person leading you is taking good care of you. You have thoughts that you didn’t even know existed and wonder where those thoughts came from. Sometimes these aren’t nice thoughts so the stress that you could possibly conjure those up is a little scary, after all you are Christian J You remove all of your comforts of how you know culturally to do things and then become worried that what you might say or do could possibly offend the very people you want to learn about. You virtually start as a baby in this new culture dealing with the stress of wanting to know everything, know the cultural ques and how they differ from your home culture, know the language and be able to speak proficiently, know how to ‘be’ exactly as those you’ve come to learn about. All of this creates an uncomfortable amount of stress. I believe it’s how you deal with these stresses that determines what you learn from the experience. This past week Jackie, Joel and Jackson dealt with uncomfortable situations and from my perspective God has and will use every moment of their trip here to glorify Himself.
Missions short term and long term can easily be about people coming from outside to bring in what you know to be ‘right’ and the ‘best’ way to do something whatever area that person is working. I believe it’s much harder to be a learner and be ok with the fact you don’t know everything. I love the saying, “people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.” As Jesus loving and believing people, and I like how Rob Bell puts it, we help people see God and how he’s already working here. We don’t save people. That is what Jesus does. And I am going to add we ‘strategically’ help people see how God is working. Here in Ghana that strategy looks different than a strategy in America. So we have to learn this culture before we are strategic.
This past week and a half Jackie, Joel and Jackson learned an incredible amount about Ghanaian culture. They asked great questions, (some I didn’t know which encourages me to continue to be a learner!) they tried a little food outside their comfort zone without eating things that would make them too sick, but most of all I saw them really trying to build relationships with people. I saw them desiring to know about family life of those we met, know how they work in the jobs they do, know how they worship God in this culture and how they show love to each other. We visited and greeted, the Ghanaian cultural way, many people. As the week continued, I saw them praying about beginning this partnership here and what would God have it look like for years to come. We were blessed to have Bishop Atto Brown of the northern diocese of the Methodist church with us…what does that mean for those who don’t know Ghana Methodist church lingo? That means there was an older respected Ghanaian man in the leadership of the church who spoke truth to places we went, encouraging them to reach out and think outside of themselves. He was able to relate the vision of the twining program, the relationship building partnership The Orchard is doing here with Bole, the area we went. He was able to speak to us Americans in a way we were able to understand Ghanaian thought processes and culture according to different situations. He was able to cast a vision that this partnership isn’t about coming and check marking a project list off and leaving so white people can feel good about themselves and the churches here get ‘stuff.’ The vision is to grow deeper together in a relationship, sharing the love of Christ with each other and to those in the surrounding communities.
I feel like I can say this living here a year, watching and learning the culture, talking with Ghanaians in church leadership and attending church here. We all have to be intentional about loving those outside our walls of the church. We are called to love those who are lonely, hurt and marginalized in society no matter if that’s MS- Tupelo, Benton, Ackerman or in Ghana like Bole, Guniyiri, Tinga… wherever. In some places here, as it is in America, we become focused on the people inside our church instead of remembering those who aren’t.
One of the blessings this week was watching Joel and Jackie talk about why they are here. And how they are branching out to show Christ’s love just building relationships with people. After I interviewed the Bishop for the video I’m making for The Orchard, I realized that them sharing that reason of coming all this way just to love on people really encourages others’ here to do that. I know I’ve thought many times, oh if I come here for a short time and say
‘love others,’ people could say, well look at all the money you have that’s why you can come here and tell us that. But the reality is, people here consider it a great honor that someone would come all that way. Jackie said this this past week and it’s true. Ghanaians bring their best when they meet you. They wear their finest clothes, the cook the best food they have, and truly want to serve you the best way they can. So do we bring our best to them? Do we bring our best clean pure heart of Jesus love to offer? Or do we bring our own motives whatever those might be? We’re not perfect and no one here on earth is, but do we bring the best we can?
I have to say how much it pleased me to see the Hawkins look at this trip in a relationship building way and not something to just check off the list to say “ check…gone to another country to tell people the way to do ‘it’.” I’m excited to see what’s next for The Orchard in this partnership.
For more about the trip visit Joel and Jackie’s blog at www.tingabolemission.blogspot.com.
The past 13 days have been exciting, challenging, exhausting, stressful but full of joy! Overall I think Jackie, Joel, Jackson and I would agree the first vision trip for The Orchard was wonderful.
I want to first thank everyone who has prayerfully and financially supported the Hawkins coming to Ghana. Their time here I believe was fruitful for their hearts as well as those they started a relationship with. If you ask them about the trip they will probably tell you the first couple of days were very stressful! You face emotional stress. You arrive in a new culture after traveling for over 20 hours and you are exhausted when you get off the plane in the host culture, in this case Ghana. Then you ride in a car where you are bombarded by all your senses as you hear, smell and see everything new for the first time. You ride in a car, not knowing at all where you’re going but trusting that the person leading you is taking good care of you. You have thoughts that you didn’t even know existed and wonder where those thoughts came from. Sometimes these aren’t nice thoughts so the stress that you could possibly conjure those up is a little scary, after all you are Christian J You remove all of your comforts of how you know culturally to do things and then become worried that what you might say or do could possibly offend the very people you want to learn about. You virtually start as a baby in this new culture dealing with the stress of wanting to know everything, know the cultural ques and how they differ from your home culture, know the language and be able to speak proficiently, know how to ‘be’ exactly as those you’ve come to learn about. All of this creates an uncomfortable amount of stress. I believe it’s how you deal with these stresses that determines what you learn from the experience. This past week Jackie, Joel and Jackson dealt with uncomfortable situations and from my perspective God has and will use every moment of their trip here to glorify Himself.
Missions short term and long term can easily be about people coming from outside to bring in what you know to be ‘right’ and the ‘best’ way to do something whatever area that person is working. I believe it’s much harder to be a learner and be ok with the fact you don’t know everything. I love the saying, “people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.” As Jesus loving and believing people, and I like how Rob Bell puts it, we help people see God and how he’s already working here. We don’t save people. That is what Jesus does. And I am going to add we ‘strategically’ help people see how God is working. Here in Ghana that strategy looks different than a strategy in America. So we have to learn this culture before we are strategic.
This past week and a half Jackie, Joel and Jackson learned an incredible amount about Ghanaian culture. They asked great questions, (some I didn’t know which encourages me to continue to be a learner!) they tried a little food outside their comfort zone without eating things that would make them too sick, but most of all I saw them really trying to build relationships with people. I saw them desiring to know about family life of those we met, know how they work in the jobs they do, know how they worship God in this culture and how they show love to each other. We visited and greeted, the Ghanaian cultural way, many people. As the week continued, I saw them praying about beginning this partnership here and what would God have it look like for years to come. We were blessed to have Bishop Atto Brown of the northern diocese of the Methodist church with us…what does that mean for those who don’t know Ghana Methodist church lingo? That means there was an older respected Ghanaian man in the leadership of the church who spoke truth to places we went, encouraging them to reach out and think outside of themselves. He was able to relate the vision of the twining program, the relationship building partnership The Orchard is doing here with Bole, the area we went. He was able to speak to us Americans in a way we were able to understand Ghanaian thought processes and culture according to different situations. He was able to cast a vision that this partnership isn’t about coming and check marking a project list off and leaving so white people can feel good about themselves and the churches here get ‘stuff.’ The vision is to grow deeper together in a relationship, sharing the love of Christ with each other and to those in the surrounding communities.
I feel like I can say this living here a year, watching and learning the culture, talking with Ghanaians in church leadership and attending church here. We all have to be intentional about loving those outside our walls of the church. We are called to love those who are lonely, hurt and marginalized in society no matter if that’s MS- Tupelo, Benton, Ackerman or in Ghana like Bole, Guniyiri, Tinga… wherever. In some places here, as it is in America, we become focused on the people inside our church instead of remembering those who aren’t.
One of the blessings this week was watching Joel and Jackie talk about why they are here. And how they are branching out to show Christ’s love just building relationships with people. After I interviewed the Bishop for the video I’m making for The Orchard, I realized that them sharing that reason of coming all this way just to love on people really encourages others’ here to do that. I know I’ve thought many times, oh if I come here for a short time and say
‘love others,’ people could say, well look at all the money you have that’s why you can come here and tell us that. But the reality is, people here consider it a great honor that someone would come all that way. Jackie said this this past week and it’s true. Ghanaians bring their best when they meet you. They wear their finest clothes, the cook the best food they have, and truly want to serve you the best way they can. So do we bring our best to them? Do we bring our best clean pure heart of Jesus love to offer? Or do we bring our own motives whatever those might be? We’re not perfect and no one here on earth is, but do we bring the best we can?
I have to say how much it pleased me to see the Hawkins look at this trip in a relationship building way and not something to just check off the list to say “ check…gone to another country to tell people the way to do ‘it’.” I’m excited to see what’s next for The Orchard in this partnership.
For more about the trip visit Joel and Jackie’s blog at www.tingabolemission.blogspot.com.
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